Rural Ill. town would rather have Gitmo detainees than struggle with chronic unemployment – baltimoresun.com

(Baltimoresun.com) – THOMSON, Ill. AP — Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town would rather take their chances with suspected terrorists in their backyard than watch their neighbors continue to move away in despair over the lack of jobs.

News that the federal government may buy the nearly empty Thomson Correctional Center and use the maximum-security state prison to house Guantanamo Bay detainees has given people in Thomson hope that things might be about to turn around in this woeful town of 450.